Book I chapter 11

Chap. xi.

Wrought¹ Iron, not excited by a loadstone, draws iron.

F rom the ore, which is converted, or separated, partly into metal, partly into slag², by the intense heat of fires, iron is smelted³ in the first furnaces in a space of eight, ten, or twelve hours, and the metal flows away from the dross⁴ and useless matter, forming a large and long mass, which being subjected to a sharp hammering is cut into parts, out of which when reheated in the second hearth⁵ of the forge, and again placed on the anvil⁶, the smiths fashion quadrangular lumps, or more specially⁷ bars which are bought by merchants and blacksmiths, from which in smithies usually it is the custom to fashion the various implements⁸. This iron we term wrought, and its attraction by the loadstone is manifest to all. But we, by more carefully trying everything85, have found out that iron merely, by itself alone, not excited by any loadstone, not charged by any alien forces, attracts other iron; though it does not so eagerly snatch and suddenly pluck at it as would a fairly strong loadstone; this you may know thus: A small piece of cork⁹, the size of a hazel-nut, rounded, is traversed by an iron wire up to the middle of the wire: when set swimming on still water apply to one end of it, close (yet so as not to touch), the end of another iron wire; and wire draws wire, figure and one follows the other when slowly drawn¹⁰ back,


and this goes on up to the proper boundaries. Let A be the cork with the iron wire, B one end of it raised a little above the surface of the water, C the end of the second wire, showing the way in which B is drawn by C. You may prove it in another way in a larger body. Let a long bright iron rod (such as is made for hangings and window curtains) be hung in balance by a slender silken cord: to one end of this as it rests in the air bring a small oblong mass of polished iron, with its proper end at the distance of half a digit¹¹. The balanced iron turns itself to the mass; do you with the same quickness draw back the mass in your hand in a circular path about the point of equilibrium¹² of the suspension; the end of the balanced iron follows after it, and turns in an orbit.

1 wrought   

v.引起；以…原料制作；运转；adj.制造的

参考例句：

• Events in Paris wrought a change in British opinion towards France and Germany.巴黎发生的事件改变了英国对法国和德国的看法。
• It's a walking stick with a gold head wrought in the form of a flower.那是一个金质花形包头的拐杖。

2 slag   

n.熔渣，铁屑，矿渣；v.使变成熔渣，变熔渣

参考例句：

• Millions of tons of slag now go into building roads each year.每年有数百万吨炉渣用于铺路。
• The slag powder had been widely used as the additive in the cement and concrete.矿渣微粉作为水泥混凝土的掺和料已得到广泛应用。

3 smelted   

v.熔炼，提炼（矿石）( smelt的过去式和过去分词 )；合演( costar的过去式和过去分词 )；闻到；嗅出

参考例句：

• The lead paste is smelted in a blast furnace. 铅团在鼓风炉中被溶解。 来自互联网
• Iron is taken from the earth, and copper is smelted from ore. 铁从地里挖出，铜从石中熔化。 来自互联网

4 dross   

n.渣滓；无用之物

参考例句：

• Caroline felt the value of the true ore,and knew the deception of the flashy dross.卡罗琳辨别出了真金的价值，知道那种炫耀的铁渣只有迷惑人的外表。
• The best players go off to the big clubs,leaving us the dross.最好的队员都投奔大俱乐部去了，就只给我们剩下些不中用的人。

5 hearth   

n.壁炉炉床，壁炉地面

参考例句：

• She came and sat in a chair before the hearth.她走过来，在炉子前面的椅子上坐下。
• She comes to the hearth,and switches on the electric light there.她走到壁炉那里，打开电灯。

6 anvil   

n.铁钻

参考例句：

• The blacksmith shaped a horseshoe on his anvil.铁匠在他的铁砧上打出一个马蹄形。
• The anvil onto which the staples are pressed was not assemble correctly.订书机上的铁砧安装错位。

7 specially   

adv.特定地；特殊地；明确地

参考例句：

• They are specially packaged so that they stack easily.它们经过特别包装以便于堆放。
• The machine was designed specially for demolishing old buildings.这种机器是专为拆毁旧楼房而设计的。

8 implements   

n.工具( implement的名词复数 )；家具；手段；[法律]履行（契约等）v.实现( implement的第三人称单数 )；执行；贯彻；使生效

参考例句：

• Primitive man hunted wild animals with crude stone implements. 原始社会的人用粗糙的石器猎取野兽。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• They ordered quantities of farm implements. 他们订购了大量农具。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

9 cork   

n.软木，软木塞

参考例句：

• We heard the pop of a cork.我们听见瓶塞砰的一声打开。
• Cork is a very buoyant material.软木是极易浮起的材料。

10 drawn   

v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的

参考例句：

• All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
• Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。

11 digit   

n.零到九的阿拉伯数字，手指，脚趾

参考例句：

• Her telephone number differs from mine by one digit.她的电话号码和我的只差一个数字。
• Many animals have five digits.许多动物有5趾。

12 equilibrium   

n.平衡，均衡，相称，均势，平静

参考例句：

• Change in the world around us disturbs our inner equilibrium.我们周围世界的变化扰乱了我们内心的平静。
• This is best expressed in the form of an equilibrium constant.这最好用平衡常数的形式来表示。